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Ben Weaver
Ben Weaver was a local businessman in Mayberry and the owner and proprietor of Weaver's Department Store. Around town, he developed a reputation as a stingy miser and somewhat distant to his fellow citizens. One Christmas, he insisted that Andy Taylor jail moonshiner Sam Muggins even though it meant Muggins would miss the holiday with his family. Andy got around the law by bringing in Sam's family in to spend Christmas at the Mayberry Courthouse. However, Ben kept loitering around the courthouse until Andy realized Ben was looking for someone to spend the holiday with. Ben also had grievances with salesman Bert Miller selling in the street, but Andy again worked around the law to get Bert off the street until Ben had to hire Bert as an employee to circumvent the original complaint. Ben was also a local landlord with rental property in Mayberry. One of his properties was leased by Lester Scobey, and when Ben wanted them evicted for falling behind on their rent, Andy once again went against the unpleasant job by trying to help Scobey keep his house. When his ploys failed, Andy turned to play-acting to force Ben to see how unreasonable he was being, a ploy that worked since Ben gave Lester an extended period to pay his rent and gave him a job. Ben also called upon Andy when his store was being robbed by a shop-lifter. He also briefly employed Goober Pyle as a salesman in his store. Trivia Ben was portrayed by three different actors throughout the run of "The Andy Griffith Show" with three different actors all being of rather different ages, resulting in a very inconsistent portrayal of the character. He was originally portrayed as an elderly man by Will Wright during his first three appearances. However, Wright later passed away in 1962 due to cancer. Two years later in 1964, he was succeeded by Tol Avery, who appeared in only one Season 4 episode, The Shoplifters. This Weaver was significantly younger than he was before as Avery himself was much younger than Wright was. Weaver was eventually played by a third actor named Jason Johnson in two color episodes, possibly because Avery was unavailable or the series creators had forgotten bringing in Avery to replace Wright. It is known that Avery was still alive until 1973. While it seems odd that Ben's portrayal in the series was so inconsistent, it might be theorized that behind the scenes that the younger versions could be portrayals of Ben's son taking over the business. Appearances The Andy Griffith Show *The Christmas Story played by Will Wright *Andy Forecloses played by Will Wright *The Merchant of Mayberry played by Will Wright *The Shoplifters played by Tol Avery *Aunt Bee Takes a Job played by Jason Johnson *Goober's Replacement played by Jason Johnson Different Ben Weavers Will Wright.jpg|1st Ben Weaver, Will Wright Ben_weaver_Tol.jpg|2nd Ben Weaver, Tol Avery JasonAsBenWeaver.png|3rd Ben Weaver, Jason Johnson Gallery :Gallery of Ben Weaver Category:The Andy Griffith Show Characters Category:Mayberry Businessmen or Women Category:Criminals or Prisoners Category:Season 1 Characters Category:Season 2 Characters Category:Season 4 Characters